The inaugural OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions (Trust Survey) offers a modern measurement tool for public governance. The Trust Survey is the first cross-national investigation dedicated to identifying the drivers of trust in government, across levels of government and across institutions. It is a nationally-representative survey, run in 22 countries, evaluating citizens’ confidence in public institutions. The questions in the survey build on the OECD Framework on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions, developed over the past decade by the Public Governance Committee, as well as on a series of OECD country studies and research projects exploring how to build trust in government.
The 22 countries participating in the Trust Survey have opted into the process, voluntarily opening themselves up to constructive feedback. The OECD Secretariat has benefitted from strong engagement from the Public Governance Committee and Trust Survey Advisory Group throughout this work.
These findings will serve as an important input to the OECD Ministerial on Building Trust and Reinforcing Democracy to be held in November 2022. Public trust in government institutions underpins the key pillars of the Ministerial: improving public governance responses to misinformation and disinformation; improving representation and participation in public life and citizen-focused public services; and embracing the global responsibilities of public institutions. These governance challenges are overlaid by two horizontal themes: embedding and prioritising climate change, and harnessing digitalisation for better democratic governance.
This report was approved and declassified by the Public Governance Committee on 9 June 2022 and prepared for publication by the Secretariat.